My favorite is when people say they like "asian cuisine" or "asian food". China alone has several distinct cuisines. Why do we act like this is a monolithic concept?

Because there was a lot of cultural cross-contamination between these countries, there is a huge overlap in ingredients due to climate similarities and trade between neighboring countries.

I group European & American food into their respective groups as well.

> Asia rolls out 4-day weeks, WFH to solve fuel cris...

Makes no sense, same with "I'm in a mood for asian food"

Globally, everyone does this.

When someone outside of America thinks of American food, do you think they will think of Cajun gumbo, TexMex, Clam Chowder, or something you'd find on the menu at McDonalds?

It's similar to how people say "Europe does this or that". Basically the part of their thoughts dedicated to that part of the world is so small that all they can afford is a tiny box, and everything has to go in there, reality be damned.

A lot of the places by me have both a Chinese menu and a Japanese menu. Some even have a Thai menu.

So when you're going out for Asian food, it really is that. No sense in being pedantic here.

Isn't there a concept of regional cuisine like "Mediterranean cuisine"?

It's a category that makes sense to people and communicates something clearly..?

Because that is how it's presented to "us". If the cuisine that we could access where we live was more diverse, we would think differently about the entire set (which is not happening for another set of entirely good reasons, but alas.)

When Asians use the term, we usually use it to mean "my home cuisine and other cuisines that share similar characteristics"

When my wife or I say "I feel like eating something Asian today" it usually means spicy-Chinese adjacent, i.e. served hot, vegetables fully cooked, heavy on flavor, paired with either rice or freshly made noodles.

Korean qualifies, Sichuan food qualifies, Thai food qualifies, Indian food sort of borderline qualifies on some days if we haven't eaten it recently.

We don't usually mean Japanese food when we say that. That's just our mutual understanding of what we call "Asian food". Yeah, I guess we unapologetically kicked Japan out of culinary Asia :)

Another Asian family from a different part of Asia probably uses the term to refer to a different subset of Asian cuisines.

Like just about everything else in Asia, it's a fluid term, I've only ever seen people in the west be pendantic about it.

Wait until you hear someone talk about "begging the question"